Mom Charged In Twins' Murder Covered Their Noses, Mouths: DA

RIVERHEAD, NY — A Medford woman charged with murdering her twin daughters, 2, asphyxiated the girls with her bare hands, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini.

Tenia Campbell, 24, was indicted Wednesday on charges that she murdered her children, Jasmine and Jaida Campbell, in Montauk on June 27, Sini said.

Campbell was charged with two counts of first degree murder, a felony, and two counts of second degree murder, a felony, Sini said.

“This is an extremely tragic case,” Sini said. “Especially as a parent, the alleged actions of this defendant are incomprehensible. While nothing can bring those girls back, we will seek justice on their behalf.”

At 2:30 p.m. on June 27, police received a 911 call from Campbell’s mother stating that the defendant was threatening to kill herself and her two-year-old twin daughters, Sini said. Following the call, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Suffolk County Park Rangers, Southampton Town Police and East Hampton Town Police began a county-wide search for Campbell, Sini said.

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At 4:05 p.m., East Hampton Town Police officers located Campbell and her two daughters in a vehicle at the entrance of the Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center on Montauk Highway, where Campbell told police that she had killed the children, Sini said.

UPDATE: #Medford #Mother pled not guilty this morning to killing her 2-year old #twin daughters. Her attorney spoke to reporters after. @News12LI pic.twitter.com/gsoqPSOE7O
— Eileen Lehpamer (@ELehpamer12) July" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/ELehpamer1... 10, 2019

According to a Newsday report, Campbell covered the girls' mouths and noses; Kerriann Kelly, chief of the homicide bureau Suffolk District Attorney's Office, explained the specifics of how the girls died at the courtroom Wednesday, Newsday said.

The report also states that her attorney, John Halverson of Patchogue, pleaded not guilty for his client and that she remains on suicide watch.

The officers took Campbell into custody and attempted life-saving efforts on her two children, who were taken by Montauk Ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital where they were pronounced dead, Sini said.

An autopsy conducted by the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner on the two victims determined the cause of death to be homicidal violence consistent with manual asphyxia, Sini said.

Campbell was arraigned on the indictment in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro and was remanded without bail, Sini said. She is due back in court on August 7 and if convicted, Campbell faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, Sini said.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Francis X. Schroeder, of the Homicide Bureau.

According to a News12 video, Halvorson spoke to the media after the arraignment: "This is a horrific tragedy," he said. "Obviously my client's mental disorder is going to be the subject of my defense. I think the act speaks for itself — any mother alleged to have harmed her children is not in her right state of mind," he said. He added that the judge ordered that his client be evaluated by a doctor.

According to reports, Campbell was emotionally distraught when she called her mother from the car and told her that she'd killed her babies "with her bare hands" and wanted to join them in heaven.

An earlier Newsday report said Campbell had a history of mental illness and was overwhelmed with raising the twins and her older son. "All Tenia would say was that it's too late. I killed my babies and now I have to be with them," the Newsday article reported that Vanessa McQueen, of Mastic Beach, said, according to the court records.

McQueen's statement added: "At one point she said she was going to find the ocean and walk into it and drown so she could be with my babies in Heaven," according to Pix 11. That report, and multiple others, said that the frantic mom allegedly said she had killed the toddlers with her "bare hands" before asking to die by police fire as she was found walking on the road near the Montauk park where her children were found, strapped into their car seats.

During a three-way call lasting nearly 12 minutes, Campbell, a home healthcare aid, was "at times hysterical" and would not reveal her location, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said at a news conference Friday, according to an ABC News report.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone spoke at a press conference on June 28 and said as a father of three young children, the twins' deaths were "incomprehensible. . .unimaginable and beyond tragic."

On social media, Campbell said a year ago that raising the girls caused stress. "In they (sic) first year they have manage to stress me out to maximum capacity and still make me extremely happy," she wrote on her Facebook page. "Such a blessing and a headache it is to have twins. I love you girls till the death of me."